Governor Declares Friday "Day of Mourning"

Receive the latest local updates in your inbox

NEWTOWN, CT - DECEMBER 16: A message is left on a highway overpass in remembrance of those killed down the street from the Sandy Hook School December 16, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty-six people were shot dead, including twenty children, after a gunman identified as Adam Lanza opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Lanza also reportedly had committed suicide at the scene. A 28th person, believed to be Nancy Lanza, found dead in a house in town, was also believed to have been shot by Adam Lanza. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Gov. Dannel Malloy is asking the people of Connecticut to observe a moment of silence on Friday, Dec. 21, at 9:30 a.m., one week after the shooting that took the lives of 20 students and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

Malloy, Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman and Newtown First Selectman Patricia Llodra, along with other local officials, will gather on the steps of Edmond Town Hall in Newtown, just before 9:30 a.m.

“Let us all come together collectively to mourn the loss of far too many promising lives at Sandy Hook Elementary School,” Governor Malloy said. “Though we will never know the full measure of sorrow experienced by these families, we can let them know that we stand with them during this difficult time,” Malloy said in a statement.

PHOTOS: Newtown School Shooting

During the memorial, Trinity Episcopal Church will ring bells 26 times.

Police identified Adam Lanza, 20, of Newtown as the shooter. He was found dead in the school at his own hands, according to state police.

Malloy has sent letters to governors through the National Governors Association, asking other states to join Connecticut on Friday morning in a moment to reflect and mourn.

"In the last few days, the outpouring of love and compassion from your state and from around the world has been overwhelming, and the people of Connecticut will be forever grateful. Too often we focus on what divides us as people, instead of what binds us together as human beings," Malloy said in the letter.

"The sense of community that has emerged in the wake of the tragedy should not be lost as we begin to emerge from this national tragedy, and I ask you to join with me and the citizens of Connecticut to remember the loved ones lost last Friday. I have also asked places of worship and government buildings in Connecticut that have the capability to ring twenty-six times in honor of each life taken too soon from Sandy Hook Elementary School," Malloy wrote.